1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an electrical connector of the type which positively prevents a terminal from being incompletely inserted therein.
2. Prior Art
In a conventional electrical connector shown in FIGS. 6(a), 6(b) and 7, an elastic retainer arm 13 is formed on an inner surface of a terminal-receiving chamber 12 of a connector housing 11. When a terminal 14 is fully inserted into the terminal-receiving chamber 12, the distal end of the retainer arm 13 is engaged with a shoulder 14a of the terminal 14 to thereby prevent the terminal 14 from being withdrawn from the terminal-receiving chamber 12. Then, a plate-like spacer 15 is inserted into the terminal-receiving chamber 12 so that its front end can be received in a space S formed between the inner surface 12a of the connector housing 11 and the retainer arm 13. The spacer 15 detects the amount of flexing of the retainer arm 13 toward the inner surface 12a to determine whether the terminal 14 is inserted into the terminal-receiving chamber 12 fully or incompletely.
The front end 15a of the plate-like spacer 15 is tapered so that it can be easily received in the space S. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 6(b), even when the terminal 14 is incompletely inserted into the terminal-receiving chamber 12, the spacer 15 can be inserted in the space S. Therefore, there is a risk that such incomplete insertion of the terminal 14 can be overlooked at the time of assembling the electrical connector.